How Chinese Photogs Are Camouflaging Their Japanese DSLRs During Protests
Over the past month, there have been violent anti-Japanese protests across China over disputed islands between the two nations. Japanese businesses and manufacturing plants have been besieged, leading companies like Canon and Panasonic to suspend their operations and evacuate their premises.
In the midst of all this chaos, a tricky problem presents itself: how does a Chinese photographer go about documenting the rioting? As you know, Japan is the motherland of most major digital camera companies, while China doesn’t have much of a role in this industry besides manufacturing the cameras at the request of those corporations. The answer: flags and tape.
Anti-Japan demonstrations took place in about 85 Chinese cities over the weekend, and photo journalist and enthusiasts are trying to cover-up their equipment to avoid been attacked or smashed by some crazy patriotic activists.
While there hasn’t been any word of Nikon shutting down operations, the Nikon brand has certainly been targeted. In response to smashed stores and graffitied billboards, some third-party Nikon-branded stores in China are attempting to appease the public by displaying anti-Japanese slogans across their storefronts. This one has a message that reads, “Beat down puny Japanese, kidnap porn star Aoi Sola, return us the Senkaku islands”:
You’d think that if the protesting photographers were serious about this whole anti-Japanese thing, they’d ditch their fancy Japanese DSLRs and buy a Kodak DCS Pro SLR/c or a Leica S2 or something…
Image credits: Photographs by Weibo user 1361273367, Weibo user liujie110, M.I.C. Gadget, and Weibo user wongweixiang
